Ellie and the bees (around four years old)
When the weather was clement, we used to take Ellie to the park on Sundays. After a while it became a habit she enjoyed very much.
During the week she stayed with our landlady most of the day so both me and Holmes were very happy when we could spend an entire day with our daughter and we tried our best to please her with her desires. She was a clever and curious child, so we always encouraged her to make new experiences so to learn more and more about the world she lived in. Holmes actually took her to see a scientific museum once: he was afraid it would had been boring for her but, despite his previsions, they spent the entire afternoon there; she was, he told me later, full of questions and he had a hard time explaining her things she clearly could not fully understand (because of his very young age). I did not go with them because I was not feeling well. When they finally came home, enthusiastic about the museum, she spent all the evening telling me how many strange things she saw and explaining me what they were used for and how they worked. When she finally fell asleep, we could not help but feel very proud of our creature who was showing at this early age signs of a brilliant mind. But I am wandering again. Let me return on the subject of this page.
That Sunday, it was June, I awoke and Ellie was already up, waiting for me to get up and help her to get dressed: in fact there were a few of her favorite dresses on the armchair and she was looking at them very seriously, her arms crossed on her chest and his expression of extreme concentration. When she noticed I was awake, her expression changed and she greeted me climbing on the bed to sit near me, kissing me with a huge smile. I kissed her back and held her for some time, drinking her scent. She eventually untied from me and coaxed me to get up.
"Good morning, sleepy head! Did you have a good night sleep?" I asked her.
"Hi, daddy! I had a good night and you? Do you know how the weather like today is? Can we go to the park? Can I take Gladstone this time? I like him very much, can we take him, please?" she replied in a blur, clearly excited.
I guess my brain was still kind of disconnected and I wasn't prepared for all her questions, at least not so early in the morning, so I did not reply immediately. I absently played with her soft curls, causing her to sigh in exasperation. She remained silent for some minutes, observing me very closely with her curious eyes, and finally asked me about the dog again.
"Of course we can, honey! Let me get up and see what's the weather like".
I opened the window of our bedroom and found out we were blessed with a warm and sunny day. Ellie was very happy and urged me to get dressed, she was too excited to wait a second more.
"Aren't you forgetting anything, Ellie?"
She stopped her research of the most suitable dress for the day and looked at me with a half annoyed, half interrogative expression, but not talking.
"Breakfast!" I reminded.
"Oh! That! Can't we skip it today, dad?" the little creature replied in light tone, displaying her best puppy expression.
"No, dear. Don't look at me like that. You know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Come on, let's go downstairs. We will get dressed later."
Not fully convinced, she agreed. I easily caught her before she exited the room and held her securely with my right arm on my shoulder. That made her laugh. I teased her all the way to the sitting room and her joyful shrieks filled the room.
"I am so hungry, maybe I could eat your little feet first!" I mimicked the gesture sniffing and licking her bare feet.
Laugh
"Nooo! Not the feet!"
"Alright, then I could eat your little hands!"
Laugh
"Not my hands, please!"
"So, what about your ears? I like very much children's ears for breakfast!"
Laugh
"Nooo, not my ears! Put me down, daddy, please!"
Mrs. Hudson entered the room with a large tray (our breakfast) in that moment. She smiled warmly to us and put the tray down on the table. I helped Ellie to sit on the chair in front of me. Holmes wasn't in the room.
"Good morning Mrs. Hudson. Do you know where Holmes is?"
"Good morning doctor, Ellie! Did you sleep well , darling? I'm sorry, I did not see Mr. Holmes this morning but I don't think he is out. Oh, here he is! Good Morning! If you don't need me anymore, I am leaving in half an hour." As silently as she entered the room, she left us by ourselves.
"Who's been eating my daughter? Ellie, are you sure you are still in one piece? Let me check on you! You still have your feet" said my friend teasing her daughter, tickling her and making her laugh, "and your hands and… oh, you've got only one ear left!" he added in a surprised tone.
Ellie immediately put her hands on her ears, to verify Holmes' words, and smiled cheerfully to her daddy when she understood he was lying.
"No, I've got all my ears, dad!"
"Oh, you're right, I didn't saw your left one because it was hidden by your hair. Can I join you?"
"Of course you can! Dad says breakfast is the most important meal in a day so we are going to have a good breakfast before going out with Gladstone!" she announced proudly.
Holmes glanced at his princess and then at me with a grin on his face.
"Dad knows a lot of things! He is a smart man!"
We kept talking quietly for a while but as soon as the tray was empty, Ellie bolted out of the chair, declaring she wanted to go to the park and we had to hurry. I helped her to put on her white-blue dress, got dressed myself and then we all four (me, Holmes, Ellie and the dog) started our walk to the park.
Ellie insisted on holding Gladstone's leash by herself, walking neatly on the sidewalk ahead of us, but once we arrived to our destination, she gave it to me and started running and jumping here and there, while the dog seemed unaware of his surroundings, because he stood quietly beside me. Holmes went after the child and I walked with the dog on the path until I found a bench where I sat, enjoying the sunny day and the warm atmosphere of the place. Gladstone had no intention to move, so I took out my book and started reading, occasionally glancing in the direction on Holmes and Ellie, reassured by their quiet chattering. More than once Ellie came to me to show me a flower she found, or simply to kiss me before returning to her play.
I was really enjoying my free time with my family when my daughter suddenly let out a cry, followed by a copiously weeping and Holmes shouted my name. I tied Gladstone's leash to the bench and run towards them, to find Ellie holding her right arm with his other one, crying desperately.
"She was bitten by a bee" Holmes explained.
I knelt beside her and she came a little closer.
"Oh, Ellie, I'm sorry. Show me where the bee stung you. Where do you hurt, honey?"
Too scared to comply, she could not stop crying and I held her in my arms, rocking her back and forth, like when she was very little, hushing her until she was calmer. Meanwhile, we had reached the bench, where I sat with the child on my knees.
"Ellie, will you let dad have a look at your arm, please?" Holmes asked her softly, caressing her.
She nodded and hold out her right arm to me. There was a red swollen spot where the bee stung her. I did not doubt she was hurting because I had been stung myself some time ago and it was not pleasant. I carefully inspected the area, Ellie whimpered a little when I touched her but was very brave. Luckily, there was no trace of the sting. However, I did not have my medical bag with me so I could not treat Ellie's wound. Holmes was watching anxiously me and the child, his face a mixture of guilt and worry.
"Holmes, I need you to wet your handkerchief with cool water, there should be a fountain near the next bench on your right on this path. I can't treat Ellie here, so I will dress her arm with your handkerchief, I think the cold should help until we get home."
He nodded and returned almost immediately. Ellie had been silent since we reached the bench but the swollen on her arm was growing and it surely would hurt. We had to come back home quickly.
"Ellie, I know you're hurting. We are going home now, where I can cure you. Now daddy is going to dress your arm with a cool cloth. I promise it doesn't hurt so don't be afraid, alright?"
While I carefully tighten the cloth on the wound, Holmes quietly spoke to her , distracting her from the practice. Despite she had stopped crying, I had to carry her all the way home (walking by herself was not an option and she clung to me securely, not even Holmes could make her change her mind) and I am a little ashamed to admit that at the end I was exhausted. Holmes took care of Gladstone, who was now resting with his head on Ellie's knees, whining at her sad expression. I untied the cloth and cleaned the wound, then I applied a herbal lotion (courtesy of a colleague) on the red area and massaged it.
"All done, see? This lotion is made of herbs and it helps to reduce the swelling and it is a mild anesthetic, so you won't feel pain. Do you want me to dress your arm again?" I asked softly to the small trembling creature who was watching me with wide eyes from the couch, nodding her head.
Once I had finished my work, I reassured her once again that she was alright and between me, Holmes and Gladstone we finally succeeded in making her smile again.
"Next time, Ellie, be careful with the bees and remember not to disturb them, unless you want they sting you again." Holmes explained her quietly, holding her close; she nodded solemnly, without looking at him.
"It was not my fault!" she whined.
"Of course not, dear, but sometimes the bees sting because they feel threatened. It's a defensive mechanism."
"But I would never hurt the bee. I only wanted to pick up the flower."
"Well, the bee didn't know and you were collecting the flower it was extracting the pollen from. That's why it attacked you."
She remained silent for some minutes, as if she was elaborating a complex sentence. She then lifted her gaze on Holmes and started to bombard him with questions.
"How much does a bee lives, dad?"
"Where does it live?"
When he understood she would not have let the matter drop (at least for the day), he took a big book from the library whose title was "Bee Life" and we spent the afternoon watching the pictures and answering the millions question our little princess had in her mind.
That evening, when I put her to bed, she asked me if we could take a beehive at home.
"I don't think it's a good idea, Ellie! Bees need to be free to fly around, not to be closed in an apartment!"
Satisfied by my answer, she gave a small yawn.
"Good night, honey. Sleep well!"
"Night, daddy. I promise I won't disturb the bees anymore." She said, before closing her eyes and falling asleep.
That's how my little treasure learned another important lesson in her life.
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